Using Blockchain to Track the Gold Supply Chain

Emergent Technology Holdings, a US-based FinTech company is planning to release the “g-coin”. A digital token that will be fully backed by gold in an effort to create a way to trade the precious metal with more liquidity.

The G Coin Will Be as Good as Gold

Similar to the way other companies are developing ways to encode and track seafood using blockchain technology to ensure humane and legal fishing practices the company hopes to digitally encode the gold supply chain to reinforce ethically mined gold.

Emergent is partnering with NYSE listed Yamana Gold to create “g-coins”. Each coin will be backed by a gram of responsibly mined gold which has been recorded through each stage of its processing as it travels the supply chain.

By encoding and tracking the gold the company will be able to ensure the provenance and purity of the gold. The “g-coin” as a blockchain based asset will be a certificate of ownership to be used like any other currency for investing or as payment for goods and services.

Chief Commercial Officer of Emergent Mitchell Davis explained to CNBC in an email that by attaching a tamper-proof cryptographic seal the company is able to track the gold at every point along the supply chain. “Each step of the process is recorded and publicly visible,” he added.

Fundamentally Different Than Other Tokens

So-called blood gold has made the news of late as sources like Bloomberg have reported on the horrific conditions of makeshift mines around the world where impoverished peoples are forced to labor for little to no money and even under threat of death.

This gold is then cleaned up by refiners and processed into everything from smartphones to cars with guarantees from companies like Apple Inc. and General Motors that the gold has come from legitimate sources.

The “g-coin” won’t be the first gold-backed digital currency but as Davis said in his email it is “fundamentally different” from others as its focus is on “responsibly sourced gold.”

Venezuela released a gold backed spin-off of its oil backed Petro token called Petro Gold to an array of criticism. Opposition in the country called it another example of President Madoru stripping Venezuela of its material wealth while international critics called it a ploy to get around economic sanctions levied against the country.

By using blockchain technology, Emergent is hoping to make the process of taking gold from mines to vaults easier while ensuring that every step in the supply chain is handled in an ethical way. As Davis wrote in his email discussing the “g-coin”; “You’ve got a trusted asset that is liquid, is traded globally and is fully backed by gold,”